Field guide
Fish of Minnesota lakes
20 game and pan fish of Minnesota lakes, each recorded in lakes on this site. Each page maps every lake where the fish is recorded, shows DNR survey catch rates, how to tell it from its look-alikes, and how it lives. Lake counts come from the same records as the lake pages.
Northern pikeEsox lucius1,649 lakes
BluegillLepomis macrochirus1,601 lakes
CrappiePomoxis nigromaculatus (black) · P. annularis (white)1,565 lakes
Yellow perchPerca flavescens1,532 lakes
BullheadsAmeiurus melas (black) · A. nebulosus (brown) · A. natalis (yellow)1,455 lakes
Largemouth bassMicropterus salmoides1,389 lakes
WalleyeSander vitreus1,361 lakes
PumpkinseedLepomis gibbosus1,341 lakes
Rock bassAmbloplites rupestris697 lakes
BowfinAmia calva674 lakes
Green sunfishLepomis cyanellus420 lakes
CiscoCoregonus artedi330 lakes
Smallmouth bassMicropterus dolomieu308 lakes
Channel catfishIctalurus punctatus141 lakes
MuskellungeEsox masquinongy94 lakes
BurbotLota lota53 lakes
Rainbow troutOncorhynchus mykiss47 lakes
Lake whitefishCoregonus clupeaformis43 lakes
Lake troutSalvelinus namaycush31 lakes
Brook troutSalvelinus fontinalis19 lakesAbout this guide
Illustrations are AI-generated, not photographs, and not to scale. A lake that isn’t listed for a fish may still have it: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked it. 1,788 lakes on this site have at least one fish record. Survey catch rates come from Minnesota DNR standard lake surveys (gill nets, trap nets and, on some lakes, electrofishing, each reported separately) and measure how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch. Looking for invasive species? See the invasive species guide.